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Andrew's mission in summary

Here is a list of Andrew's areas and companions:

From	To	Area	Companion
May 29, 2013	July 29, 2013	MTC	Elder Tristan Stapley
July 30, 2013	October 21, 2013	Yeongdo	Elder Jo (조)
October 21, 2013	December 2, 2013	Yeongdo	Elder Platero
December 2, 2013	March 3, 2014	Seogwipo	Elder Brower
March 3, 2014	April 7, 2014	Seogwipo	Elder Jeongheng Heo (허정헹)
April 7, 2014	May 18, 2014	Pohang	Elder Yeongho I (이영호)
May 18, 2014	June 23, 2015	Pohang	Elder Boome
June 23, 2015	August 11, 2014	Gwangan	Elder Witaek Hong (홍의택)
August 11, 2014	November 3, 2014	Gwangan	Elder Nathan Lees
November 3, 2014	January 26, 2015	Sangin	Elder Jaehun Bak (박제훈)
January 26, 2015	April 20, 2015	Sangin	Elder Boome
April 20, 2015	June 3, 2015	Sangin	Elder Nate Wunderli

Listed by "transfers":

zone leader

Transfer	Area	Companion	Note
0	MTC	Elder Tristan Stapley
1	Yeongdo	Elder Jo (조)
2	Yeongdo	Elder Jo (조)
3	Yeongdo	Elder Platero
4	Seogwipo	Elder Brower
5	Seogwipo	Elder Brower
6	Seogwipo	Elder Jeongheng Heo (허정헹)
7	Pohang	Elder Yeongho I (이영호)
8	Pohang	Elder Boome
9	Gwangan	Elder Witaek Hong (홍의택)	district leader
10	Gwangan	Elder Nathan Lees	district leader, trainer
11	Gwangan	Elder Nathan Lees	district leader, trainer
12	Sangin	Elder Jaehun Bak (박제훈)	zone leader
13	Sangin	Elder Jaehun Bak (박제훈)	zone leader
14	Sangin	Elder Boome	zone leader
15	Sangin	Elder Boome	zone leader
16	Sangin	Elder Nate Wunderli	zone leader

Transfer 16, week 6 (May 25, 2015)

안녕하세요! (Annyeonghaseyo!)

I don't think we get time to email next Monday (I'll be in 부산 (Busan) finishing up going home stuff), so this will probably be the last email from Korea!

We're emailing today because we had a ward activity last Monday - a "체육대회" (cheyudaehoi = "athletic meet") which is like.... an excercise conference? We played a bunch of sports is what I'm trying to say.

대구 (Daegu)'s been super hot lately, so everyone was really tired by the end of it all, but it was really fun and it was good to be able to see all our members. I think our AC said it was 27 degress C last night. It feels like the hot air just sits there - like, the wind will blow but the wind is just as hot as everything else, haha. I might have mentioned this already, but all the members tell me I'm lucky to leave 대구 (Daegu) before it "really gets hot."

We met with a referral from our bishop this week. He's like 9 years old, so kind of a hard.... investigator. His mother wants us to teach English to him so we do that and share a message afterwards. Really, for him to progress and be baptized and everything, his mother needs to come to church, but she's a former investigator and I'm not sure how interested she is our church. Our bishop's done a lot of work working with her family though.

Mom mentioned that Dad said that we might see Pres. Zarkou to release me the Wednsday I get back. I'd like to do that if you can arrange it please! One of the recently returned missionaries in our ward said that he couldn't meet with his stake president for a day, and that it was really hard for him, since he was still a missionary, but had nothing to do. He still had to obey missionary rules I think, like waking up at 6:30 and stuff, then he just kind of sat there all day, he said, haha. So if that's possible, I think being released early is best.

Well, this is pretty short this week as well, haha. I will do my best this next week, and see you next week! Goodbye and see you in a bit!

Love,

Elder Luke

Transfer 16, week 5 (May 18, 2015)

Hey everyone, how's it going?

Sorry I didn't write last week - we were kind of busy, and I had Skyped and I forgot.

Actually, I'm kind of short on time this week as well, but I'll do what I can.

We FINALLY ended up meeting a former investigator named 윤남 (Yunnam) - he called us suddenly one day to ask us to meet. He seemed pretty normal, interested in religion, but busy. He said he's willing to meet if he has time but he's just not sure how much time he has.

이진산 (I Jinsan) came back out to church, as did 이예진s (Sis. I Yejin) and her friend, so that was good. We've got a sports activity day planned for the 25th (Monday, which is Buddah's birthday and everyone gets time off of work and school), and we're hoping they all come. It'll be good to be able to finally spend some time outside of church meeting with 이진산b (Bro. I Jinsan). A student from English class wants to come too, and we've got a few other people to invite to. The ward promised to work hard to make the meeting fun if we promised to invite a lot of people, so we're on the case!

I told you that we were going to go to an amusement park today, but it ended up raining. It took a looooooot of phone calls, but we decided to just cancel that and hang out at the stake center. There was a lot of nothing going on at first, but we managed to get organized enough to play party games (mafia, a few rhythm/speed type games) and order a bunch of fried chicken to the church to eat. It was really good considering that was just a plan b we came up with a few hours before actually doing it. It was really nice to just spend relaxing time with people in our zone.

Other than that, not too much went on this week. We prepared a bunch of Book of Mormons with common questions -"why do I need to believe Christ?" "what happens after we die?" etc. - highlighted and marked to give out as a 전도 (jeondo = contacting) activity, but then we decided that we took too much effort and time to just give those out to people who weren't super interested. So we saved them and will slowly give them out as we talk to people on streets and stuff.

Thank you so much for everything! Until next week!

Love,

Elder Luke

Mother's Day (May 10, 2015)

No letter from Andrew this week. We got to Skype with him for an hour on Mother's Day, so that was fun. He looks good and happy. As you can see from the photo below.

Also, we got the official confirmation this week that he will be home June 3! That's pretty exciting!

Transfer 16, week 3 (May 4, 2015)

Hello!

This week was.... a little disappointing, haha.

We called up 이재덕b (Bro. I Jaedeong)to try and set up an appointment, and it turns out he's in a hospital up in 서울 (Seoul)! He's been receiving treatment in 대구 (Daegu) for some time, and apparently it hasn't been working for him, so he's gone elsewhere. He said he plans to be there for the next 4 months or so, which means that he's a drop for us for the time being (actually, neither Elder Wunderli nor I have 4 months left, so he's done for both of us I suppose). He's actually up there with the member that referred him, so not all hope is lost. It's possible that through the member, he'll start meeting with the missionaries up in 서올 (Seoul), which would be pretty cool.

이진산b (Bro. I Jinsan) didn't show up to church again.... we called in Saturday night and he said that was planning on coming, but (not 100% sure on this) apparently his dad caught him going to church and told him not to go. So I guess he's been coming out for some time without his father (who wants him to focus on his studies) knowing. Maybe in the future...?

In brighter news, 이예진s (Sis. I Yejin) brought a friend to church! She said she had a friend who was curious about church (I don't know if it's our church specifically or not - Korea has a culture of "bring your friends to church" so she might have just been looking for any church to go to"), and so they came together. I don't know how much she enjoyed the services, but she hit it off really well with our sister missionaries - they had planned to meet together and paint nails today, haha. It got cancelled though. And the members did a really good job of being friendly and interested and kind without being too pushy, so that worked out really well too!

Other than that, we met with the less active of 30 years, and taught the Restoration super simply to him. He's really nice and we were able to have a pleasant conversation about our church for quite a while, but he's not really in a position to come out to church I think. If we're lucky, we might be able to meet him again, but I think Elder Wunderli might have been a little too strong in inviting him back to church, haha. Oh, and his wife is apparently a Jehova's Witness, and he says that he doesn't want contention in the family. So it'll probably be difficult to like reactive him.

I went on exchanges on Wednsday, and we had 3 potentional appointments, but all of them fell through. And then it rained. So we spent way too much time outside trying to talk to people. It was kind of a hard day, and I feel bad because whenver someone comes on exchanges, I want them to go away feeling that our area is good, that the Zone Leaders are busy and hardworking and that things are happening, haha. But that's what Elder Wunderli and I would have done anyways, and there's no point in like, lying to try to make our beloved 상인 (Sangin) look busier than it is. Actually, one of the appointments that fell through was with a crazy former investigator (Elder Wunderli called him without looking at the teaching record, haha), so maybe it was for the better. He wanted to meet "in the vacant lot next to the parking garage behind the department store," which would be really scary if we weren't in Korea. It's a little bit weird though haha. I think I told you, but there was this other exchange where we agreed to be picked up by a man that neither of us had ever seen before (for that matter, he had never seen either of us either), without a specific purpose. We weren't kidnapped, and it turns out he just wanted to buy us dinner, so it all ended well. The things we do to try and teach people about the gospel. -_-

Oh, and I got a letter from home recently, and I learned that I had missed not only both your birthdays (Mom and Dad), but your anniversary as well. So.... happy birthday? I'll try harder next year!!!

We called up this less active (who comes to church maybe once a month?) and set up an appointment to meet with him. He doesn't live in our area, but he's got family in the ward, and so he comes to 상인 (Sangin). In any case, it turns out he lives waaaaay far out, so we took the subway for like 20 minutes, newly-built monorail for 20 mintues, then a taxi for 10 (since I've never been there before), only to have nobody home. We called to find that he was "far away," so we left a note on the door and left. We tried to walk back, got lost, walked some more, and it took a total of 2 hours and 40 minutes to not meet someone. We were both really exhausted... Not sure if we'll try and visit him again (we probably will, hahahaha).

So that's our week. I've learned a lot about being postive and not giving up and also about walking around a lot. Sometimes, there are hard weeks, but things will get better. Thank you all for everything!

Love,

Elder Luke

Transfer 16, week 2 (April 27, 2015)

Hello!

This first week is already over.... we actuallly didn't have too much to, but I think we did a good job keeping busy. And we were able to see a lot of miracles as well, haha.

Elder Wunderli and I ended up visiting with members a lot this week - we maybe visited with 5-6 families or so. Basically Elder Wunderli got here and we spent a lot of time the first few days making calls to members, and people were really willing to have us over I guess! So Elder Wunderli had already met with maybe 1/5 of the ward (well, maybe not that much, I'm not sure) before actually coming to church, which a really good start. I think we'll try to keep up the momemtum and use Elder Wunderli as an excuse to visit everyone!

Kind of bad news - we were talking with our ward mission leader (well, we had MCM is what I mean), and he says to give 이진산b (Bro. I Jinsan) more time. He says for now, as far as lessons go, consider him a drop and not try too hard to teach him for the time being. On the bright side, the young men planned an activity for him - 이진산b really likes soccer, and so the young men will be having a soccer game this Saturday, and they already invited him and everything. Not sure if he has time, but we're hoping that this will be a good opportunity for him to make some more friends in the ward, and get to know Elder Wunderli as well! And of course, hopefully that will lead to him coming out to church more! :) Oh, he didn't come out this last Sunday though.

This transfer is probably the least busy I've had as Zone Leader - We've just got one meeting, which is Zone Conference, which means that President Barrow and the APs plan it for us. We'll probably have to give a talk or do some teaching practice or something, but that's it. And then we only have SPM once as well, which means that we've got a lot of time freed up to try and focus on 상인 (Sangin)! That's something we've been wanting for a long time, but when we actually get time, it turns out we don't have anything to do, haha. So we hit the streets and spent a lot of time on 전도 (jeondo). Normally, 전도 ("tracting") isn't that effective - you give out a few pamplets to people who don't really want them, get a phone number maybe, but it's hard to find people who are really really actually interested in the gospel.

We stepped out probably Tuesday, and the first person we talked to told us that he was a less active of 30 years, and then we had a nice conversation which ended with them telling us that he'll buy dinner for us sometime (kind of a Korean culture thing). Is he interested in coming back to church? Honestly, probably not, but it's really good to have his phone number, and have just one more person to contact and figure out how to work with.

We had a couple of experiences like that - just like better-than average 전도 (Sangin). We met this one guy, and I talked about our church a little bit, but he didn't seem interested. As he started to walk away, Elder Wunderli mentioned English Class, to which he said he was interested (we ran into him again like an hour later, and he said that he'd call!), and while we were talking to him, a lady in a nearby shop was listening, and came out to ask us for our number. Now again, neither of them have called us yet, but on somedays, meeting people interested in just English is hard, but we were blessed to find two.

We also met this one other church goer who really liked us. I guess his favorite church minister/pastor/church leader is American, and so he was really excited to meet other American Christians. We gave him a pamphlet, he took a picture with us, and we parted. I think it was the next day that he called and said that he had read the whole pamphlet, and had some questions. Elder Wunderli talked with him for awhile on the phone, and he said that he wanted to meet and buy us hamburgers sometime (because we're American...). Again, I don't know if he's super interested in conversion, but he's yet another person with some potiential to meet, and from there we can kind of see how things go.

And then we also spent some time calling former investigators - we met with one who turned out to really like missionaries but wasn't really that interested in the gospel (really common scenario in Korea...), and we've also been contacting another former investigator who seems willing to meet but busy.

A member up in Seoul gave us a referall of a friend, and so now we're meeting with Brother 이재덕 (Ee Jaeduk). He hurt his leg in a work-related accident some 8 months ago, got surgery, and is now receiving rehabilitation treatment (that doesn't sound correct). He spends a lot of time at home, and is pretty free to met us pretty much whenever. He's a little bit older, maybe 60 years old, attended a Presbyterian church for a long time, and seems to really like us.

The first time we met, I thought he was super golden - he took everything in well in a typical Korean old man kind of way (old people either accept everything or absolutely nothing), and he told us to come over often.

We met him the second time yesterday, and I don't know how interested he is exactly, haha. Maybe it's just that he doesn't understand what we're doing as missionaries, or maybe it's because he's just really lonely sitting at home all day, but he talked a toooon during the lesson, and kept taking the conversation to "not the gospel." He read from the Book of Mormon though, up to 1 Nephi 4, and he understands really, really well. I think he's understood the best of anyone I've ever taught - probably his church background helps him understand scriptural language. He seems to totally accept that the Book of Mormon is scripture (he was like "well, I gotta read it if is that Word of God, right?"), so he's doing really well there. Again, he wasn't super focused in the lesson, so we'll have to figure out a way to teach him in a way that works for him. He called this morning because he "wanted to hear our voices" so maybe he just likes the company of two handsome young Americans visiting him. We'll have to meet him a few more times to see where he goes. Oh, and he says that because his leg hurts, it's hard for him to come to church. :/

So that's about it! Elder Wunderli and I are working well together, and we've been really blessed to see some good things happen this week! I think things will continue to go well this transfer. Thanks for everything!!!

Love,

Elder Luke

Here's a few pictures....

Here's a picture of the kids at an orphanage where we (kind of) teach English...

And lunch after ward conference...

A few pictures with 이예진s and 이진산b, and then one we took at McDonalds at 4:30am the day Elder Boome left. We woke up at 3:00 to get there, haha. It was fun though!